In general, a digital camera has a function of storing images, obtained by image sensing by an image sensing device, into a detachable storage medium such as a memory card and a display unit for displaying a menu for the user to check sensed images, delete desired images, and make various kinds of settings. Recent digital cameras have a function of recording not only still images but also moving images.
Recently, as the memory capacity of a storage medium has increased, many images can be recorded. This makes it necessary to provide some means for finding images desired by the user from many images. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-112708 discloses such a digital camera having the function of allowing the user to search for a desired image file from many image files.
There is also available a technique of preparing a hierarchical menu for a display unit, classifying images according to photographing dates or the like, and allowing the user to browse images for each classification unit. This technique is disclosed by, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-199028.
In general, portability is required for a digital camera, and hence the number of operable switches (including buttons) is about 10 at most. Using these switches and the menu on the display unit allows the camera to have functions larger in number than the switches. In performing the above image search, several operations are required to issue an instruction to make a search with a photographing date as a search item. In order to set another kind of data as a search key instead of a photographing date, it is necessary to trace back from the top menu to the corresponding search menu, resulting in complicated operation.